The perverse glee that some on the port side of the blogosphere have shown over Bush’s poll numbers appears to have largely resulted from a Rather-esque spirit of inaccuracy

First off is some extremely large scale bias by CBS in “reporting” that Bush has an “all time low” approval rating of 34%…among a poll crowd that was 40% Democrat, 33% independent, and only 26% Republican! Out of 1018 people polled, 409 were Democrats, 333 were Independents, and only 272 were registered as Republican. And even weighted, the Democrats had almost a 10% lead over both Independents and Republicans. Hardly fair if you ask me.

Uhh, methodology, anyone? The poll results claim in a rather vague way that the results were weighted, but why the sample was so skewed ex ante is unexplainable. Further, there is no explanation by CBS as to how the results were weighted.

So enjoy your glee, my excitable leftist brethren. The midterms are getting closer, and so far, you still don’t have a message that goes beyond Bush’s “approval” ratings. You might need to work on that.

(thanks to Rob Huddleston for the link).

UPDATE More on the poll here and here.

Apparently there is something exciting coming from TeamGOP soon

We are excited about some news that will be coming out later this week. It will be great for TeamGOP, great for Republican politics in Tennessee, and will give the TeamGOP haters just one more reason to rant and rave about this little unimportant insignificant group at their next meeting of the Flat Earth Society!

I’m picking on their syntax, but it sounds as though TeamGOP admits its collective belief that Columbus was in fact wrong. Perhaps the big news “later this week” will be that Copernicus is full of it. I for one can hardly wait.

Blake Wylie found an interesting position on self defense today. Copied from NashvilleFiles

My take on the matter is simply this: It seems reasonable to me that if I am futzin’ around with a firearm or some other kind of lethal weapon, whether that weapon is on my person, in my vehicle, under my bed, or wherever, then I am probably concerned more with fear than I am with loving and caring about my family and other ones who are dear to me.

The actual link to the above post is here. This particular blogger seems to have a hard time distinguishing between fear and preparation. Certainly, if you didn’t fill up your car with gas, you should fear being stranded. Having sense, we all know that filling up that vehicle precludes that possibility. Likewise, if you cannot protect your family, you should fear for their safety in an otherwise hostile world. If anything, owning firearms, which we do, puts to rest that “fear”. Of course, it’s not an emotional decision to own firearms. Opposedly, it’s quite the logical one. In my view, it’s part of running a responsible household. But in all fairness to the blogger, he is intellectually consistent

In moments of meditation, the worst thing I can think of would be for harm to come to someone I love. Yes, that would be tragically painful. On the other hand, I nonetheless cleave to the belief that countering violence with violence is not a solution to the problem of fear.

Well, in the real world, there are times where violence solves lots of things. Moral superiority is rather meaningless if you’re needlessly dead. In reality, fear in the debilitating sense has no role in self defense. The ability to reason is what prompts one to self defense, not the emotion of fear.

George Clooney has stated that he enjoys the tag of “traitor” that he has received from some on the Right. He said that it is important to him that he fall on the right side of history.

I don’t consider Clooney to be a traitor. He has an opinion that is in opposition to those in power. Good for him.

I am amused by another comment Clooney made that was part of the same article,

“I’m proud of those [boycotts and calls of traitor] because those were badges of honour for me because that was when you did it when it was hard to do,” the actor and director said.

First of all, the sentence structure doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But, beyond that, I find it ridiculous that Clooney claims these are difficult times in which to disagree with the government. That cry, so often made these days, is just silly. What risks has Clooney taken? He is still loved by his peers, nominated for awards, and not placed in a detention center for speaking his mind! Get over yourself, Mr. Clooney. Bravo for having opinions, but please don’t think you’re making any great stand by expressing them.

I have an admission to make … I watched The Tyra Banks Show last week. If Tempest Bledsoe, Tony Danza and John McEnroe can have their shots at a talk show, why not Tyra? She is incredibly self-centered and I can’t help but watch the ego explosion that happens when the cameras start rolling!

On the episode that I watched (OK, I’m lying if I imply I’ve only seen one episode), Tyra interviewed several women who work at The Bunny Ranch, as well as the owner of the establishment and some customers who were not embarrassed by their purchase. For those not aware of this Nevada institution of debauchery, The Bunny Ranch is a legal house of prostitution.

The show left me pondering a question of ethics and public policy (thanks, Tyra!). Why is prostitution illegal? If these women are licensed and all transactions take place between consenting adults, why is it the place of government to interfere? I think the idea of paying a stranger for sex is disgusting and unthinkable, and it’s unfortunate that many married men find their way to The Bunny Ranch. But, I also disapprove of drunken one-night stands. Should the government hire people to stand outside every bar at last call to prevent such casual sexual encounters?

If a prostitute (or “party hostess”, as they are called at The Bunny Ranch) has a communicable disease, then certainly she should be prosecuted for endangerment or murder or whatever charge works in such situations (just married to a lawyer … choose not to know much about such things myself). But, other than that, it seems that two 25-year-old people should be able to make the decision to have sex with or without the transaction of money. What am I missing?

There is an article in The Washington Post today about the Peace Studies course that is taught at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (a school just outside of D.C. … and I believe that BMWs are the required mode of transportation for students there). The course is taught by former Post writer Coleman McCarthy.

McCarthy is upfront about his opposition to war, animal testing, the death penalty and other expected points of pacifist adherence. Some students and parents at BCC are upset that the Peace Studies course is being offered with such an unapologetic skewed perspective and a petition has started. The class is called Peace Studies … what do you expect?! The course is an elective, so no student is forced to listen to Mr. McCarthy’s perspective and adhere to his views in order to pass a graduation requirement. I don’t see why there’s a problem.

Mr. McCarthy offered this course through the Honors program at the University of Maryland and I took it during my junior year. The content was certainly unique. We were all required to send letters to death row inmates asking about their lives and getting to know the senstive men behing the murdering and raping. We were introduced to a live turkey before Thanksgiving break and then challenged still to eat turkey over the holidays. We read essays by Ghandi, King, Joan Baez and the instructor himself. We learned that inner-city minorities were not responsible for their crimes. We learned that all men were potential rapists. We watched videos taken at a slaughterhouse, a bull fight and a hunting excursion (Dick Cheney had an award-worthy cameo). We listened to a lot of music from the 1960s and were asked to write reflection pieces on it. At the end of the semester, we were asked to meditate and determine the grade that we felt we deserved. I gave myself a 93% … I wanted the “A” but I didn’t want to get greedy.

I believe it would be interesting to go back and take that class again ten years later with the different perspective that I now have on many issues. It still would be better than the Honors course called “Examining and Understanding Male Sexuality” that we had as an option. Lots of guys signed up for the course thinking they would get to talk about sex every week. Much to their dismay, the first assignment of the class was to find a photograph of male genitals, bring the picture in to share with fellow students and then write an essay about how looking at the genitals made them feel. Ah, higher education.

I saw what our ambassador said earlier, and knew some liberal blogger somewhere would jump on it. I have my wish with Kos. Richard Bolton noted that the United Nations were preoccupied. Here’s Kos’ take

What is the bizarre preoccupation these guys have with sex? Really? Sex is one of the UN’s primary problems? I’d think it might have something to do with the fact that the world’s greatest power refuses to participate in a meaningful way in any international effort or to recognize international law or the Geneva Conventions or to sign onto critical international treaties. But maybe that’s just me.

Uh, man, that’s the problem. Of course this is the errant liberal belief that the Republican problem with Bill Clinton was sex , instead of honesty or lying under oath, or obstruction of justice. Bolton believes that the United Nations is more of a playground than an international political vehicle. It’s not that it’s sex - it could be a preoccupation with Texas Hold ‘Em. It doesn’t really matter. Bolton’s point is that the UN is worthless. The real objection is that this isn’t really news.

that we are an anti-family nation?

Yeah, I didn’t either. Apparently killing the unborn creates more families than not. I had no idea

The U.S. fails miserably in keeping up with other nations in the most basic of health measures such as infant mortality, for god’s sake. We are one of only six nations that do not mandate paid maternity leave. In America, women are routinely left to raise children on their own without even the aid of minimal child support payments, affordable and safe childcare, or even the family allowances that are so common in the other developed nations. Nothing makes the women of America poor like children, yet elected representatives insist that women should just do the ‘morally right’ thing by producing hordes of children for the convenience of an anti-family, anti-life nation.

Of course. So like the Nazis and Soviets, let’s just kill the unwanted - it’ll save us in the eyes of the United Nations statisticians, which is of course the most important thing.

The final solution, I believe we used to call it. Get over yourselves.

Geeze.

UPDATED for content

I should have written this before Bob did. It’s a shame Larry Daughtery doesn’t know that Doug Henry has significant opposition - I mean, I do, and it’s obvious that Larry doesn’t read blogs.

For the record, Bob has quite the campaign put together. But the odds are that Henry won’t be running again. If he does, I’ll be terribly surprised.

Look no further for an answer than the BBC

The Democrats need a message and a new way of communicating that message to a mass audience. They have neither.

And do not be fooled by those who say this malaise is structural, at this stage of the electoral cycle there isn’t a presidential candidate etc.

No, it is more than that. The American left has faded away.

Only their bumper stickers remain, like cockroaches after a nuclear holocaust.

“Re-defeat George Bush,” they whine. Not knowing, not caring that the world has changed.

Well, dealing with reality has not as-of-late been a very Democratic quality.

Tennessee Deputy Governor Dave Cooley has “disobeyed orders”, and further spins the governor’s office into the plethora of THP scandals. From The Tennessean today

Even this past December, after Bredesen condemned a pattern of cronyism at THP and forced out its top three officials, Cooley continued to involve himself. He contacted Gerald Nicely, interim commissioner at the THP’s parent agency, the Safety Department. Cooley offered advice and sought a personal e-mail address to contact Nicely — a back channel that would fly under the radar of public-record laws.

Cooley is both arrogant and foolish. Nicely, who took over the job of commissioner once Fred Phillips was forced out, apparently operates no differently than Phillips. Or else the real governor here is Cooley, and Nicely would have feared reprisal if denying his request for a “personal email address”. Regardless, if you want to do something secretly and below-board, you never use email. Or traceable phones, for that matter. Cooley’s insubordination and lack of judgment needs to be dealt with decisively, which means termination. If the governor does not replace Cooley, we as voters must question his judgment. Among the questionable activities of Cooley

• Cooley was kept informed on a wide range of THP issues by his wife, Melanie Cooley, who for almost two years was executive assistant to Safety Commissioner Fred Phillips. In one e-mail, she told him of a politically connected trooper who “appears to want something different every other week.”

• Cooley passed along recommendations even after Bredesen asked him to stay out of THP business, including a trooper who was recommended for promotion after a $5,000 contributor to Bredesen wrote to Cooley.

…

But the records show that Phillips was by no means the last word on THP decisions: Cooley was deeply involved in shaping the culture there. Even Phillips, shortly before his ouster, said he sometimes felt left out of the loop on THP affairs by Dave Cooley and THP Commander Lynn Pitts, who were closely allied.

Of course, the governor can do the right thing here, and deal with the situation decisively. Or he can try his luck at the Cumberland Two-Step

“Dave is the deputy governor,” Bredesen said. “If he wanted to talk to the incoming person, who he’s had a long relationship with, about any thoughts he had about where he ought to look or something, that does not feel to me
like interfering in the Highway Patrol.

“What I told him to do is, ‘Don’t be calling up people and talking about promotions. Don’t be calling people up and talking about internal mechanics of the thing. I think it’s best if you just sort of stay out of there.’ “

Oh, just “sort of stay out of there”. That’s precisely why Cooley was looking to find ways to contact Nicely that could not be discovered under any freedom of information request. It all makes perfect sense, now. Bredesen either didn’t mean what he said to Cooley, or Cooley didn’t listen.

Let us not underestimate the importance of Dave Cooley to the operations of the governor’s administration. He is the political operator. He does things and contact people that others, such as the governor himself, should not do for political reasons. But now he’s getting sloppy, and Bredesen will have to weigh the pros and cons of losing his right-hand man in light of his right-hand man’s apparent appropriateness for a role on Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. There’s much more in the article - it’s worth taking a look.

It has become apparent that even with the most modern of technology, Democrats in Florida cannot run elections. Apparently, George W. Bush would have won Florida by even more votes than he did in 2004 if not for faulty electioneering and extra votes in Palm Beach County.

Phil Ayers debates the merits of the Titans (who have the 3rd overall pick in the NFL draft) picking Vince Young over Jay Cutler. I have a soft spot for Cutler too, as Vanderbilt has actually produced the best college quarterback in the conference, and one of the best in the nation. But gee, Vince Young is Vince Young. Maybe I’m reading too much into the national championship game, but that performance against the supposed best football team in the country was unbelievable. He certainly has the tools for the next level. Undebatedly, in my view, Matt Leinert does not. Ryan Leaf and Andre Ware will be waiting to greet him on the other side.

So if the Titans pick Young, I’ll be happy. No one yet thinks Cutler is worth a #3 pick. That could change, though. However, if we get Matt Leinart, I think I’ll cry. And it’s never pretty seeing a grown man cry (over sports).

From a Pew Research Center survey

The survey of more than 3,000 adults found that 47 percent of conservative Republicans are “very happy,” as are 45 percent of moderate/liberal Republicans. But only 28 percent of liberal Democrats say they are very happy, as do 31 percent of conservative/moderate Democrats. Among Independents, 29 percent are very happy.

…

“This finding is niftily self-reinforcing,” quips syndicated columnist George F. Will, reporting on the survey. “It depresses liberals.”

I have my personal thoughts as to why this is - I’m curious as to what some of our readers think.

(thanks to Mark Rose for the link)

Wizbang has the following take on the UAE ports deal

To sum up: right now the biggest concern we ought to have right now is Iran’s headlong rush to acquire nuclear weapons. And the UAE sits right on the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint of the Persian Gulf. Keeping very close ties with the UAE is critical. And Dubai Ports World has a very good record of managing ports.

So I think that the potential risks in letting DPW take over managing six of our ports are minimal, while the benefits to be gained are tremendous. I can even get over being on the same side of the issue as Jimmy Carter.

But any time Hillary Clinton, Pat Buchanan, and Big Labor are all agreeing on an issue, I think that’s almost enough to sway my opinion to the opposite.

The point makes sense, but I still feel there’s even more to know. Being on good terms with relatively moderate Muslin nations is a good thing. However, the details here are still sketchy. Merely “changing management” doesn’t exactly strike me with a large degree of comfort.

This could be an unfortunate result of Media Matters watchdog role of the “conservative” media (meaning, really, that they watch Fox News all day long)

Media Matters is probably a useful organization for the Left, helping them to close with the Right on the strategic “Media Minders” gap. (”How will they know we exist if we don’t pester them relentlessly?”) But sometimes—often, even— they’re just ridiculous.

Consider their statement of purpose: “Media Matters for America is … dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.

You have to click-thru to see the complained about photographs. Damn you Fox News!

This broke midday today, but it’s a significant enough occurrence to mention now. Ricin, or what has initially been determined to be ricin, was found in a roll of quarters at the University of Texas. The larger issue is not that a little has been found, but more importantly where did it come from and how much more could be floating around.

I’ll be posting more as the story develops. In the meantime, more details can be found here.

I just decided to look over at Nashville is Talking and see what the weekend scene was about. This particular post caught my eye, and the local liberal response took me aback

About three years ago–I believe it was on Fan Fair weekend–I was running through the Belle Meade section of Nashville, when I was stopped by two men in a convertible Mercedes. As I was running down Lynnwood Lane, they had been driving back and forth, obviously lost, before they finally came up to me and asked if I knew where former Vice President Al Gore’s house was. Just another celebrity groupie in Nashville.

Except that they were two young men of obvious Middle Eastern descent. The passenger spoke to me in heavily accented English. The driver said nothing and stared straight ahead. A voice in my head said that something wasn’t right. I remembered their license plate number, took a mental note of their descriptions, and gave them the wrong directions.

I immediately ran home, wrote down what I could remember, and called the local office of the Secret Service. A few hours later I got a call back. And then another. And another, as they asked for more details. It turned out that the license plate was a dealer tag–long ago expired. The Secret Service was obviously intrigued, but I never heard any more about the incident.

That’s a post that Bob Krumm did two days ago. Somehow someone someway finds this common sense response from someone who realizes in fact that the United States is at war to be racist. The blogged response by Chris Wage exhibits this failure to comprehend

I’m not going to mince words here — I want my opinion on this to be very clear: Bob, you’re a racist. Sounds terrible when I say it like that, doesn’t it? Racism is a pretty terrible thing. I’ve noticed that I have bandied about words like “bigotry” and “xenophobia”, and to be sure, in many cases those words are appropriate as well, but the word that describes this story that Bob so proudly conveys is “racism”.

Yeah, right. Only a fool would have encountered the situation Bob described and not thought more of it. “Racism” is the irrational belief that one race is superior to another. Putting a situation into context incorporating race and acting rationally is not “racism”. Chris’ memory of world events evidently has some holes in it. Wondering what the intentions are of oddly behaving Middle Easterners asking for the location of a man who once was a heartbeat away from the presidency should sound an alarm or two in most rational folk. Here we have a text book example of what happens when the sick self-righteousness of politically correct behavior intersects with real-world events. Nothing good comes of it.

It’s a silly argument. Those who think Bob is racist are beyond hope and hardly worth my time or his. If Bob is a racist, Chris is an idiot. But at least he feels good about himself.

I’ve seen several articles and TV news stories recently about the banning of tag on school playgrounds. Apparently, the game is dangerous to kids’ self-esteem because not everyone gets to be “it” and others are emotionally hurt if they are always caught and declared “it”. This is simply a no-win situation! I can more understand the banning of dodgeball, since kids really hurl those red balls at each other and schools can be held liable for some serious injuries, but tag? This game is an essential childhood ritual. Why don’t you go ahead and ban Mad Libs so kids with poor vocabulary and grammar skills aren’t hurt and swing sets to avoid the inevitable inferiority complexes that would develop in short-legged children?

Where I taught high school in Maryland, gym teachers were not allowed to play any games that required a goalie. There is just too much pressure put on the student selected as goalie and we shouldn’t allow such stress on his fragile young ego. One creative teacher found a way around this problem. Instead of a “goalie”, the student was called “the last defender”. Brilliant!